Is selling electronics wrong livelihood, since many contain animal products?

[Boomerang]

I've read that it's common for electronics like iPhones and TV's to be made with animal products like gelatin or cholesterol.

Is it wrong livelihood to sell electronics then? Like, what if you were a marketer working at Apple. Does that count as engaging in a meat business?

[Malcolm]

I've read that it's common for electronics like iPhones and TV's to be made with animal products like gelatin or cholesterol.

Is it wrong livelihood to sell electronics then? Like, what if you were a marketer working at Apple. Does that count as engaging in a meat business?

A monk came to the Buddha and complained he could perceive tiny creatures in his water that slipped through mesh of his water strainer. As a result, he could find no water to drink. The Buddha advised him to not look so deeply.

[Inedible]

Animal products should be the least of your concerns with selling electronics. But what else would you do for a job to support yourself in a more morally pure way?

[Archie2009]

Animal products should be the least of your concerns with selling electronics. But what else would you do for a job to support yourself in a more morally pure way?

[absoluneant]

I've read that it's common for electronics like iPhones and TV's to be made with animal products like gelatin or cholesterol.

Is it wrong livelihood to sell electronics then? Like, what if you were a marketer working at Apple. Does that count as engaging in a meat business?

A monk came to the Buddha and complained he could perceive tiny creatures in his water that slipped through mesh of his water strainer. As a result, he could find no water to drink. The Buddha advised him to not look so deeply.

Thanks a lot Malcolm ! That's something I would have complained to the Buddha too
Disclamer : I'm not vegan, but I still agree to the idea.
His answer makes sense in the context of the monk's question : tiny creatures in his water that he couldn't avoid swallowing while drinking.
Nothing science would consider "sentient" today, so a vegan wouldn't be concerned about it ! (and the reason would be that feedback loops seem constitutive of cognitive suffering, but that's another topic)

If these electronics require the killing of a sentient being (which I wasn't aware of until now), it gets a bit more complicated.
Did the Buddha knew how huge and optimized (in a capitalist sense) the industrial killing of animals would get, or the ecological implications of today ?
Sorry if that's a sensitive topic, I'm eager to learn anything about it.

[Johnny Dangerous]

Your participation in the animals death is so indirect as to be meaningless. If you are responsible for that then you are also responsible for (as one example) wars where your country has supplied arms to another country, where you have indirectly benefited economically. You could go on ad Infinitum with this kind of thinking.

The thing is, karma is -volition- I.e. intent, which gets dicey here. IMO worrying about this is overthinking, and most of us likely have much more pressing and obvious things to deal with in terms of ethics.

If you want to focus your efforts there, advocate for manufacturing changes. Worrying too much about the indirect karmic minutiae here is neurotic, and the energy could be much better spent.

Remember in the Mahayana in particular part of what makes an action meritorious is sincere intention to benefit beings, worrying over much about -ones own- karmic debt can move away from that goal sometimes.